Prospex Energy (PXEN) has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with the IMMAGE (Investigating Miocene Mediterranean-Atlantic Gateway Exchange) Land-2-Sea drilling project at its El Romeral concession in Spain.
The agreement will see IMMAGE support scientific investigations using cores recovered from Prospex's planned five-well drilling programme at El Romeral, which is currently awaiting permits. The coring work will be funded by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP).
Under the collaboration, IMMAGE will contribute up to US$1.5 million towards coring and logging operations targeting the late Miocene to Pliocene sequence in a selection of the planned wells. As a result, Prospex will incur no additional costs for the research programme while gaining access to valuable geological data.
The partnership is expected to raise the international profile of the El Romeral project through its involvement in a major palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental research initiative examining the Messinian Salinity Crisis and its impact on global climate.
The agreement will be implemented through Tarba Energía, Prospex's wholly owned Spanish subsidiary and operator of the El Romeral project. Tarba will provide access to drilling locations and support IMMAGE scientists with core recovery and transportation activities.
Prospex's Chief Executive Officer Tom Reynolds said: “We are delighted to be able to combine the drilling programme to be undertaken by Tarba at El Romeral with important science being carried out by the IMMAGE project. This is a mutually beneficial collaboration for both academic research and industry.”
“The additional core and data will significantly increase our understanding of the reservoir geology and support efficient recovery of the energy resource at Romeral.”
IMMAGE is an international scientific drilling programme investigating Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange between eight million and four million years ago. The research focuses on understanding how the gradual restriction of the connection between the Mediterranean and Atlantic oceans contributed to the Messinian Salinity Crisis, a major geological event that altered ocean chemistry and circulation patterns.
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This collaboration provides Prospex with a useful source of third-party funding and technical data ahead of its planned drilling campaign at El Romeral. Beyond the US$1.5 million contribution, access to additional geological information could help optimise future development plans while increasing the project's visibility within the international scientific community.